Recensione di Mark Johnson
dal sito seaoftranquility.org
in lingua inglese
Gran Torino is an Italian progressive-rock-band composed of four versatile musicians: Alessio Pieri, on keyboards; Gian Maria Roveda, on drums; Fabrizio Visentini, on bass; and Leonardo Freggi, on guitar. They released a debut album, GrantorinoProg, back in 2011, and are now back with their latest release Fate of a Thousand Worlds.
Fate of a Thousand Worlds is an instrumental album inspired by a story written by a friend of theirs, Paolo Gadioli. The story details the journey of a man travelling throughout the entire known universe. The album serves as the soundtrack to this journey as the stories hero encounters adventures, emotions and torments.
Ed Unitsky has again created inspired artwork that enhances the power and experience of this unique voyage through the universe. The astronaut standing above a skeletal scorpion provides enough of a vision of danger mixed with adventure to lure any brave prog fan in for a listen.
The musicianship is inspired and unique sounding enough to set this band apart from the many instrumental prog bands that roam the universe. Imagine all of the things that you might encounter on a journey through the universe. Without lyrics you are left to your imagination…and sometimes that can provide its own horrors as well as inspirations. You will hear a similarity in their sound from many of prog's seminal and leading bands. There are several passages of keyboards reminiscent of ELP, especially on "The Battle of Velasquez", "Dead Suns" and especially "The Fog of Time".
The guitars are also solid throughout, helping to punctuate important sections of tracks and the storyline. The bass and drums help provide good rhythm throughout. "Empty Soul" opens with a deep early Genesis feel to it complete with mellotrons; making it one of my favorite tracks on the album. The flute like keys that take over after the mellotrons add to the depth of the feeling flowing from this track. Adding piano like keys only locked it in as my favorite.
"Arìda", "The Short Dream", and "End of a Planet" also possess that masterful keyboard and mellotron rhythm fans of early Genesis and prog music will remember well. This section of the journey is especially entertaining.
The closer, "Fate of a Thousand Worlds", opens with dramatic piano keys and more of the powerful lead electric guitar riffs mixed well with bass and solid drums.
This is a great introduction to the instrumental prog delivery of Gran Torino. Put on your headphones, close your eyes and take a trip through the universe and experience the Fate of a Thousand Worlds.
